Marked for Hector Ochoa
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jan 2027
Veracruz throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Santos Laguna the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Veracruz will enjoy reviewing.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Pachuca have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luis Ramirez. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A goal and an assist for Hector Ochoa — 7.88
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.88 beside his name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Veracruz asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Alexis Guardado was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad18 Jan 2027
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Oct 2026
The small margins put Veracruz out
Out, 1‑2 to Club America, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Veracruz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
At last: Veracruz win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Puebla. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match31 Oct 2026
Puebla made Veracruz work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Both jobs done by Hector Ochoa — 6.39
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.39, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruz Azul have kept their man, and Veracruz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Leonel Müller was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Moreno has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hector Ochoa and Veracruz agree another 3 years.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andres Guardado chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Queretaro spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.09, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match15 Aug 2026
Veracruz cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ivan Herrera in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Ramirez. 3‑2 against Queretaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.